"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" Gladys Noel Bates

Recently, during a conversation, a local Black Female Teacher that teaches in the Monroe City School System, presented me with a question that left me almost speechless. Her question was, "How do you think I felt as an Educator when I encountered a Black High School Student who couldn't read, write, or multiply in High School? Notice that she said a High School Student, not a Kindergarten Student, not an Middle School Student, but a High School Student! The conversation that led to her question more or less had to do with how I think that the current school model, school system, school curriculum, and even the school testing processes are outdated and need to be replaced ; "not reformed but transformed into something new!". You see, it is very difficult for me to understand how year after year, so many schools in Monroe, Louisiana, along with other cities and parishes in Louisiana, "CONTINUE TO CHURN OUT "FUNCTIONAL ILLITERATE STUDENTS!" It seems that somehow or another the students are learning how to memorize questions and answers to pass standardized tests, without becoming proficient in reading, writing, or math. Recently, "I CHECKED ONLINE TO SEE HOW PROFICIENT BLACK STUDENTS AT THE SCHOOLS LOCATED NEAR BLACK COMMUNITIES, IN MONROE" were in reading and math. At just about all of the schools, the students were reportedly tested at between 40% -55% PROFICIENCY in READING and MATH. Long story short, I feel that it is insane for us to go on expecting better results, different results, results that we need to see from students, under the current school conditions. Furthermore, this could be part of the reason why so many of our Black Youth are out on the streets of Monroe, running around misbehaving and behaving like Neanderthals!!! Well, on to this week's Black Pioneer. Gladys Noel Bates was born born March 26, 1920, in McComb, Mississippi. Sometimes thereafter, her family moved to Jackson, Mississippi. Upon finishing high school, Gladys enrolled at Alcorn A&M College in 1937. She also attended several other colleges including : Tougaloo College ; West Virginia State University ; and the University of Colorado in Denver. Over the years, she earned a Bachelor's Degree as well as a Master's Degree. Although Gladys had many other Civil Rights accomplishments, she is mostly known for her "LANDMARK SALARY DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT COURT CASE AGAINST THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI IN 1948! According to records, her lawsuit was the first Civil Rights Court Case in the State of Mississippi involving charges of wage discrimination. By the way, since Gladys was an officer in the Jackson, Mississippi Chapter of the NAACP, the NAACP assigned a young Negro Attorney by the name of Thurgood Marshall to act as Chief Council for her case. However, they also got an elderly Negro Attorney from Meridian, Mississippi by the name of James S. Burns to represent her during the court proceedings. From the start,Thurgood Marshall advised her and the local Mississippi Negro Teacher's Association that she would need at least $5,000 dollars before filing her lawsuit. While time and space does not permit me to go into all the details as to how they raised the $5,000 dollars, I must say that they were very creative! Interestingly, one of the ways they raised the money was by accepting private donations.For safety purposes, they decided that it was best to exclude White People and other White Teachers from helping raise the funds.Additionally, they kept the times and places of their meetings a secret. Not only was that done, but at the end of their meetings, they would pass a gunny sack around the room,"AND EVERYONE AT THE MEETING HAD TO PUT THEIR CLENCHED FISTS INSIDE THE SACK,WHETHER THEY HAD ANY MONEY TO CHIP IN OR NOT!" This was done as a safety measure, "JUST IN CASE THERE WERE ANY SNITCHES IN THE ROOM!" Therefore, the snitches wouldn't be able to tell who had or hadn't donated money toward the lawsuit. Within a few months they had surpassed their goal of raising the $5,000 dollars needed. On March 4, 1948, Gladys and her legal team filed her "LANDMARK SALARY DISCRIMINATION COURT CASE," THE FIRST EVER SALARY DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT AGAINST THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI INITIATED BY A NEGRO! Although her court case went on for 4 years, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear her case on the grounds that all administrative remedies hadn't been exhausted.They said that Gladys had failed to reached out to the local school board, the county Board of Education , or the Mississippi State Department of Education, before she had filed her lawsuit. Never-the-less, all was not lost, because her case helped exposed the gross discrepancy between the salary amounts that Negro teachers received in comparison to their White counterparts as well as serve as an example case for all other salary lawsuits filed by other Negroes that followed hers, which were many!!!